Storm water that falls on paved streets or parking lots is usually gravity passed to a variety of catch basins, generally buried in the ground, as taught, for example by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,744,048; 5,297,367 and 4,261,823 (Morris et al., Stetler, Sainz, and Gallagher et al., respectively). Most of these catch basins are buried in ground, conventional asphalt pavement, concrete or the like, and many have interior filters to control/catch hydrocarbons or the like which may be washed into the catch basin by rain water or the like.
It is the possibility of the catch basin passing a mixture of vapor plus oil, gasoline or chemicals from a spill into local waters that presents a problem. FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,723 (Morris et al.) is particularly illustrative of this problem. Many of the catch basins have top grates, usually of metal, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,243B1 (Flanagan), while others, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,051 (Pratt) utilize a perforated/pervious paving layer covering a deep bed of crushed stone or the like surrounded by impervious walls. Additional patents in this area include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,231,758B 1; 6,106,707 and 6,080,307 (all Morris et al.).
What is needed is containment of leaks of 1 to 2 gallons (3.8 liters to 7.6 liters) of oil, gasoline or the like at a time from mobile vehicles, so that discharge into the surrounding environment is avoided. Typically, if there are reports of a leak, spill response crews are dispatched to try and contain the leak before it enters a storm drain. It is a main object of this invention to provide such a containment system that can be easily emptied by spill response crews.